Abstract
Simple SummaryThe embryonic development of commercial broiler chickens, which accounts for about one-third of the whole life span, has attracted increasingly more attention. Egg yolk is the main nutrient source of broiler embryos, and its metabolites change rapidly during the embryogenesis. Chicken sexual hormones may play important roles in changing the profile of metabolites in different tissues. Therefore, we compared the profiles of yolk metabolites and patterns of liver lipid-related gene expression of male and female chicken embryos. The results showed that the female yolk metabolites were mainly related to the lipid metabolism and amino acid metabolism in early embryonic stage, and vitamin metabolism in late embryonic stage, while the male yolk metabolites were mainly associated with lipid metabolism and nucleic acid metabolism in early embryonic stage, and amino acid metabolism in late embryonic stage.The metabolic processes of animals are usually affected by sex. Egg yolk is the major nutrient utilized for the growth and development of a chicken embryo. In this study, we explored the differences of yolk metabolites in male and female chicken embryos by LC–MS/MS. Furthermore, we investigated the mRNA expression of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and fatty acid synthase (FAS) in chicken embryo liver with different sexes in different embryonic stages. The results showed that the nutrient metabolites in the yolk of female chickens were mainly related to lipid metabolism and amino acid metabolism in the early embryonic stage, and vitamin metabolism in the late embryonic stage. The male yolk metabolites were mainly associated with lipid metabolism and nucleic acid metabolism in the early developmental stage, and amino acids metabolism in the late embryonic stage. There was no significant difference in the expression of LPL or FAS in livers of male and female chicken embryos at different embryonic stages. Our results may lead to a better understanding of the sexual effect on yolk nutrient metabolism during chicken embryonic development.
Highlights
The main source of nutrients for chicken embryo development is the yolk, which provides more than 90% of nutrients and is dynamically metabolized to supply essential elements for the embryonic organ growth and tissue formation [1,2]
Different metabolites were screened by their fold changes and t-test was performed to compare the differences of yolk metabolites between male and female chicken embryos at E7
The results showed that the yolk metabolites downregulated in female chicken embryos but upregulated in male chicken embryos, and were mainly related to the glycerolipid metabolism pathway; while those upregulated in female chicken embryos but downregulated in male chickens embryos were mainly related to the porphyrin metabolism (Glycine, Porphobilinogen), primary bile acid biosynthesis (Glycine, Taurochenodeoxycholate), and arginine biosynthesis (Fumaric acid) pathways
Summary
The main source of nutrients for chicken embryo development is the yolk, which provides more than 90% of nutrients and is dynamically metabolized to supply essential elements for the embryonic organ growth and tissue formation [1,2]. The yolk nutrients are primarily absorbed and metabolized into small molecules such as lipoprotein, carbohydrate, amino acid, or fatty acid through the enzymatic digestion of the yolk sac [4]. The yolk sac is atrophied at the late stage of embryonic development (approximately embryonic day 17–21), and the residue yolk contents are digested and absorbed by the embryo intestine and liver instead [5]. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is a rate-limiting enzyme principally, which mainly decomposes the triglycerides of VLDL and chylomicrons (CM) into fatty acids and glycerols in adipose tissues [6,7]. Fatty acid synthase (FAS) is a multifunctional enzyme that plays a central role in the biosynthesis of lipids and catalyzes the synthesis of fatty acids from acetyl coenzyme A and NADPH [8]
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